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I've not voted but I'm thinking of doing so: Is MDPI a reputable Academic Publisher?

Reason is that MDPI has grown really big. It's roughly the fifth biggest publisher overall now, which is incredible considering that it was much smaller (~17th in 2015). It's arguable that How to identify predatory publishers/journals (the "duplicate" question) works as an answer for small publishers, since there are so many of them and they are often very similar to each other. However, there aren't many publishers of MDPI's size. They attract attention from other publishers (example), and there are more facts about them available (e.g. their annual report).

The question also has close to 100k views as of time of writing in spite of being closed.

I wonder what others think about this.

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I agree that MDPI is a special case which is not properly covered by the generic question. A typical predatory publisher it is very easy to spot as such, and there is a broad consensus on their status. I suspect that there is no consensus on how to categorize MDPI, and having some high-quality answers there could be very useful.

It less clear to me whether reopening the old question or having a new question would be the way to go. As things have changed in the past three years, maybe a new question makes more sense?

Finally, we usually avoid discussing specific institutions - but if MDPI is the fifth biggest publisher, that would be reason enough for me to make an exception here.

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    I think I learned enough about MDPI that I can write a much better answer than the current ones. Hence, voting to reopen. A new question would also work, but I don't see how that would work, since the effective question is the same.
    – Allure
    Mar 6, 2021 at 3:33
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I don't have a clear idea about this, but I'm inclined towards keeping it close.

On one side, I think it would be reasonable to have that question reopened to allow anyone to write an answer better representing the current situation.

On the other side, having had to read and moderate some recent comments about that publisher, I suspect we would end up having two large and strongly biased factions insulting each other with no possibility of finding a common ground. I'm thus not sure whether any good would come from such a reopening. Moreover, where do we set the closing line then?

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  • If that negative scenario you depict became true, one could still close it again.
    – lighthouse keeper
    Mar 5, 2021 at 8:59
  • Please see my comment below @AnonymousPhysicist's answer.
    – Nobody
    Mar 5, 2021 at 11:50
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Even if this question were on topic, I do not want it reopened because the current answers are obsolete. The top answers are not well founded.

In recent years I have peer reviewed several times for MDPI and had wildly inconsistent experiences regarding the editors' reaction to my peer reviews. It may be that, like Elsivier, their journals vary greatly in quality, in which case the question has no answer.

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    I want it reopened for exactly the reasons given in this answer.
    – lighthouse keeper
    Mar 5, 2021 at 8:57
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    @lighthousekeeper The subject question is a shopping question to me because it seeks assessment for MDPI. (2) The subject question is opinion-based according to this answer (I just upvoted it, meaning that I agree). Users who have good experience with MDPI would say yes, it's a reputable publisher, those who have bad experience would say, no, it's not reputable. For these two reasons, I would vote to "Leave Closed" if it ever gets to Reopen queue.(I just checked, I gave it "Leave Close" a while ago.
    – Nobody
    Mar 5, 2021 at 11:48
  • @scaaahu Sounds more like an answer than a response to my comment.
    – lighthouse keeper
    Mar 5, 2021 at 11:56
  • @lighthousekeeper Actually, my intent was to comment on this answer. I just accidentally put your name at the beginning. Sorry about that.
    – Nobody
    Mar 5, 2021 at 12:03
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    @scaaahu I see. For (2), I think there's more to be said here. There seem to be some aspects that are fishy, some aspects that are more legit, and a good answer would list these. For (1), that's technically right, but I think that this is such an interesting and timely case that it would warrant an exception. The alternative (having the closed question from 2012 as a top google result) is less useful.
    – lighthouse keeper
    Mar 5, 2021 at 12:48
  • @lighthousekeeper One of the reasons I am reluctant to answer is because of my time zone. It's close to my snack and bed time. Let me express my biggest concern here. If someone asks a question about the other publishers, e.g. Elsivier, are we going to close it or leave open? My take is to close all assessments (except software, though).
    – Nobody
    Mar 5, 2021 at 13:25
  • @scaaahu For Elsevier, we could discuss that case, too, if there was a closed question about it that attracted 100k views...
    – lighthouse keeper
    Mar 5, 2021 at 18:07

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